We are Andi & Ellen Delis from Wanaka in Central Otago New Zealand, see here. www.wanaka.co.nz

I have been owned by 37 bike over 33 years, Ellen has only been riding the last two years.

We left New Zealand May 3rd leaving behind friends and family, our jobs and most of our responsibilities to come see America from top To Bottom, we have started in Anchorage AK and we are setting up here, Barb and Victor from Alaska Leather http://www.alaskaleatheronline.com/servlet/StoreFront have been absolutely instrumental in seeing TMK get off the ground so our heart found thanks goes to these guys.

Our plan is to travel around in Alaska first off then go to Prudhoe Bay, catch up with fello ADVers in Dawson at the D2D gathering, head north to Inuvik, fly up to Tuktayuktuk then head south taking in the middle and west side of Canada, USA, Mexico, Central then South America down to Ushuaia ... then decide where to go from there money and time dependent.

We are riding two DR 650s, Ellen has a 2011 White one, mine is a 2012 Grey one, both new through Alaska Leather, we decided given the distance we will travel and cost to ship my bike from NZ we both will start on new machinery.

In the next post we will show the gear we have chosen, we have to wait until Ellens trousers arrive

We have some acknowledgments to make first off to the people and businesses that been been of great help and sponsored us with product, I no particular order they are

Sponsors

ARAI Helmets USA - Have sponsored us with the new XD4 Adventure helmets, Ellens in White, mine in Fluro Yellow, these things rock, I have an ARAI Chaser for my road helmet and these have met all the expectations for teh same quality fit and finish.

Klim Adventure Gear - Have sponsored my Adventure Rally Jacket and Badland Pro pants as well as the Inferno warm layer top and bottom, this is the best gear I have ever worn in my life and I am very grateful to be wearing the best gear to cover all conditions.

Kevin and Keiko from Te Anau New Zealand - Keiko designed and drew our cards and logos, seriously cool given I don't have an arty bone in my body.

Icebreaker Clothing from New Zealand - sponsored our Merino gruds, socks and longs johns, we love Merino clothing and Icebreaker as it tolerates smelly stinky adventure bikers without stinking like cotton does and it is very warm to layer up with.

Alaska Leather - Barb and Victor, I simply can't say enough so I won't even try. Legends they are getting two foreigners of the ground in style.

Bark Busters- sponsored our Barkbuster Storms which Ellen has already crash tested and saved our first set of levers.

Sargent Seats - sponsored our low height comfort seats, they have saved our arse from one end of the planet to the other as the factory DR seats or shockers.

Mike and Mei Dawson in New Zealand for sponsoring a good contribution to riding to to make sure we make it safe back to New Zealand

Screens for Bikes from Australia, these screens are mint taking the wind blast off our chest and taking the load off our helmets, who says you can't have a few home comforts

So the next post we will put up gear and pics, just got the lappy and camera so learning quickly how to use them so please be patient

Where are we now?

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How'd you manage the sponsorships? I'm assuming there's some free advertising in it for the companies beyond a ride report on advrider somehow? Was it simply asking with details of your intended trip, or did you have something more elaborate set up?

Trip sounds like it's going to be a fantastic time for the two of you! Hope it's more than you expected it to be, with plenty of memories to spare for many years! Good luck with everything!

Thanks fellas, we have two years planned so hopefully we can entertain you.

Harvey Krumpet ... yeah he is my twin bro.

Figured you must be a relly.
Myself & my GF are over the moon with his old DT. He has inadvertently started us off on a similar path to your own but not, for the foreseeable future, as epic. One day...

Andi,
Sorry to have missed the your going away shout. I was busy on the bike. Is that a good enough excuse?
I'll tap on your web page from time to time but it's easier to subscribe to this as it emails me when you have added new content.
It sounds as though you are both finally under way and living the dream. Vicki and I are at present drafting up the designs for our next adventure as well. Nothing cast in stone just yet as we need to sort our finances out first but it look as good that crossing paths in South America could be in the cards.

Travel safe as I know you both will. If you like, once your down in the "Lower 48" I'll try to point out a few must visit locations. Not too many as I'm sure you will want to find some of those amazing places for yourself.

Andi,
Sorry to have missed the your going away shout. I was busy on the bike. Is that a good enough excuse?

Nothing wrong with that excuse mate, no worries at all.

Thanks for your big e before we left, was going to reply but got too busy, was not quite panic stations before we left but the dude who invented "Last Minute" made our day

Off to Homer tomorrow so will take time to get pics etc sorted, camera has arrived so will pick it up in the am as well, almost sorted, bikes 95% complete, my safari tank hasn't arrived as yet, nutha week of so.

Catch up down the track in SA .... be a great idea, that would be very cool...just keep us posted

Need to get our debit card so we can open a smug mug account, card won't be here till this time next week

After 10 days of intense working, chopping, grinding, soldering, drilling, bashing, scraping and knuckle bashing Chiwi and Hobbit are finally ready to race. (we are STILL married)

We learnt a lot about the bikes, everything we had prepared fitted like glove and we established that if we couldn't fix it with a big hammer it was an electrical problem.

We were going to take both bikes to Amy's - an ADV (adventure rider ) who rides Suzuki DR650 invited us a few other guys for a salmon feed on Saturday night (12th May), Andi took them both out on the drive way and got them started. Some how Chiwi took herself out off the stand and fell over, on the way down Chiwi blatantly attacked Hobbit and knocked Hobbit off his*perch*as well. Ellen rushed over turned both of them off. well, Andi's crash board on the side panniers took the hit and the left rear case took a beating where Chiwi bit him. Anyway, Chiwi seemed not liking the fall and wouldn't start when we picked her up!!. With the time pressure, we had to both jump on Hobbit and went to Amys.

The dinner party (our first official engagement) was wonderful, we meet some local ADVs as well. Amy cooked up a storm for us, Jack, Paul, Rodger and Katey all gave us some good advice on riding. It was the second time people asked us if we have heated vest, they said we would need them going up to the North. We think we will try what we have now - which is three layers of Icebreaker, see how it goes.

Sunday 13th May, we left Anchorage to Homer, which is 210 miles west of Anchorage. Andi gave Chiwi a blow job (per Amy) to get it started (remember it wouldn't start after falling over the night before, must have been an air lock in the fuel tube and stopped the fuel get into the carb).

We knew it would be cold, so two layers of Icebreaker long Johns and three layers for the upper body. Only just out of city on the highway a bitterly cold wind hit us, then came down with rain. With heated grips on full, our hands still cold.

We stopped at a service station, wanted some hot food to warm us up. The hot soup was nothing like the one we imagined, clear water with a few slice of noodles and chicken strips served with crackers! Not stopping here again.

After the luke warm clear water soup, we hit the road again. It's getting colder and colder, the rain turned to snow! We had to keep wiping our visor to be able to see through it. Ellen was thinking:"what the hell is it? Is not the same as what Amy said the night before." She couldn't see through her visor, and kind of lost the sense of balance. She was almost in tears, *just as well Andi found a bypass and we can pull over.

Fortunately, the snow turned to rain again after we came down a bit. The road was getting drier and the Sun almost came out. "It was lucky, " Ellen thought. However, she spoke too soon. The road turned wet again and this time, came down with hale! Ellen visor was fogged up inside, so she could not see through again. She tried to pull the visor up, then the hale hit her face like cutting knives. So she shut the visor, can't see the road. It was getting really dangerous now. She slowed down, kept the bike up straight, until finally passed the hale zone. "That was a ride in hell, I wasn't prepare for that."she thought.

After about 3 hour riding through wind, rain, snow and hale, it was still 95 miles away from Homer. The sky came to clear, the road was dry and it getting warmer. We were on boarder of thinking heated vest might be on the shopping list for next ride, but also understand we only need them here in Alaska, then carry them around the rest of the trip. Maybe we try 4 layers of Icebreaker on the way back.

There was no drama for the last leg of our trip, we started to see muse on the side of the road. GPS took us to Charlie's - another ADV rider. Homer welcomed us with sun shine and beautiful snow mountain and a Moose grazing in front of Charlie's front yard. The four seasons ( cold, very cold, very very cold and freezing ) we had gone through to get here - it worth it.

.....After the luke warm clear water soup, we hit the road again. It's getting colder and colder, the rain turned to snow! We had to keep wiping our visor to be able to see through it. Ellen was thinking:"what the hell is it? Is not the same as what Amy said the night before." She couldn't see through her visor, and kind of lost the sense of balance. She was almost in tears, *just as well Andi found a bypass and we can pull over.